EXETER — Teenagers looking for ghosts at the abandoned Ladd School got a real-life encounter when five young men carrying axes, clubs, knives and BB guns took their money, cell phones and credit cards, according to the state police.

The teenagers said they went to the abandoned hospital building on the Ladd School grounds after seeing Internet postings that said the abandoned school is haunted, the state police said.

The Ladd School and its other-worldly occurrences — such as voices that whisper or scream, people being touched or hit when no one is there, or cameras that don’t work near the site — is a popular topic of Web sites and videos on YouTube. Wikipedia lists the Ladd School, founded in 1907 for people with mental disabilities, along with other places considered haunted in the United States.

The five men attacked a total of 12 young people over the past three months, according to Rhode Island State Police Capt. David Neill. The men were students at the Exeter Job Corps Academy located on the grounds of the Ladd School, Neill said. Three had associations with known gangs, he said. No one was hurt during the alleged robberies, he said. No one is permitted on the Ladd School property but ghost hunters still visit, Neill said.

Arraigned on three counts of first-degree robbery and three counts of conspiracy were: brothers Kou Xiong, 21, and Benjamin Xiong, 19, of Warwick; Sidney Chay, 19, of Providence, and Anthony Deloge, 18, of Warwick. Jonathan Wilson, 25, of Charlestown, was arraigned on two counts of first-degree robbery and two counts of conspiracy. They were all held without bail pending a court date of May 6.

tpina@projo.com